Hitting The Business Bull’s Eye

Published on August 15, 2011

Workshops Help CEOs Get Most out of Their Companies
While Awarding Scholarships to Bauer College Students

TR Moore & Company’s consulting partner and workshop speaker Jennifer Mailhes is ready to offer tips to businesses at Business on Target seminars in September and November.

There’s probably not a business owner in Houston who doesn’t want to make more money or pay less taxes. But how does a CEO begin to make that happen? A Business on Target workshop might be a good start.

Organizers are currently seeking applicants for the invitation-only workshops, coming to the University of Houston’s Athletics/Alumni Center on Sept. 29 and Nov. 3. Facilitated by Houston CPA and consulting firm TR Moore & Company and underwritten by corporate sponsors, the free, six-hour seminars are custom-crafted to help mid-size businesses maximize their potential.

Business on Target also includes a service component, designed to support the entrepreneurs of tomorrow: About 30 percent of sponsorship revenues go toward scholarships for students at the University of Houston’s top-ranked Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at the C. T. Bauer College of Business.

Here’s how Business on Target works: Attendees — typically CEOs and c-level executives who run companies with revenues of $5 million and up — are interviewed to determine where improvement is needed. “We actually take each business owner through an assessment prior to the workshop,” says Jennifer Mailhes, TR Moore & Company’s consulting partner and workshop speaker. “We get them on the phone and ask a set of questions about their business goals and challenges, and then we tailor the agenda around those responses.”

Common areas of interest help drive the content of the session, which runs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and includes breakfast and lunch. “If taxes are a concern for everyone, then we do the tax module,” Mailhes says. “If profitability is a concern for everyone, then we do that module. It’s amazing the common thread we find when we put all these executives together.” Some other topics frequently on the agenda: cash flow, long-term growth and improving business models.

At the end of the session, the Bauer scholarships are awarded, with each corporate sponsor contributing $1,000 to the college’s entrepreneurship studies. (The most recent workshop, in April, yielded $4,000 in scholarship money.) “We are very committed to supporting the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship,” Mailhes says. Besides TR Moore & Company, current and previous sponsors have included Insperity; Integrity Bank; Brady, Chapman, Holland & Associates; Bank of Houston; Green Bank and Seyfarth Shaw.

Meanwhile, Mailhes says that TR Moore & Company — the Houston location of Doeren Mayhew, one of the top 100 U.S. accounting and consulting firms — wants to put Bauer graduates to work. “We are really trying to ramp up our recruitment program, and the only college we are focusing on is the University of Houston,” Mailhes says. “We’ve just made offers to three interns in the accounting program for next spring.” She invites UH students and alumni to check out TR Moore & Company’s job listings.

To register for Business on Target: Contact Melinda Genitempo or Geoff Gallo. 713-789-7077; info@trmoore.com.